Tag: Gonzaga Bulldogs

Every March, the NCAA Tournament serves up both the hardcore hoop head and casual fan the most loaded buffet anywhere outside of the Rio in Vegas. The expansion of the Big Dance from 64 teams to 65 in 2001 begot the introduction of the First Four in 2011, giving us all a two-night appetizer before…

When you think about teams making the NCAA Tournament year-after-year, you think about the blue bloods: Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, Kentucky; certain programs you should always expect to see in the Big Dance. And those same programs are likely in contention for a national championship. One of the most consistent programs of the past two…

Let me make this clear upfront: I do not personally consider Gonzaga a mid-major program. Yes, the Zags play in a mid-major conference, and their sustained Cinderella success at the turn of the millennium drew the blueprint for every mid-major program aspiring for something greater. But Gonzaga reached that promised land, transcending labels to attract…

Following the lead of college football, which hosts a weekly rankings reveal to build anticipation for the Playoff, basketball's NCAA Tournament selection committee took to unveiling a Sweet 16 preview in early February a few seasons ago. The 2018 edition of this exercise, as unnecessary as it might be, confirms much of what we already…

It's a new season, and West Coast Wednesday has a new home. For those seeking news, notes and features from the Western conferences in the 2017-18 college basketball season, look no further than #WCW. With re-introductions out of the way, this first edition of The Open Man's West Coast Wednesday bangs in the paint with…

Today marks 100 days until the tipoff of the 2017-18 college basketball season. If you have made it this far, you deserve a can of Coke and hearty pat on the back, as the offseason is more than halfway complete. To commemorate this milestone in the arduous march back to basketball, The Open Man offers…

The final sequences of the 2016-17 college basketball season featured all five starters on the North Carolina Tar Heels' national championship-winning roster touching the ball. Those five Heels -- Justin Jackson, Kennedy Meeks, Joel Berry II, Theo Pinson and Isaiah Hick -- were all either juniors or seniors. North Carolina winning the 2017 national championship…

Last week, I shared my observations on trends within the various college basketball top 25 rankings that surfaced following the NBA draft deadline. This week, it was my turn to take a crack at reshuffling projections. AthlonSports.com published my Top 25 Monday morning, and there are several noteworthy changes from the initial outlook I put…

Save some room Thanksgiving weekend for the inaugural PK80 Phil Knight Invitational, college basketball's newest -- and arguably most loaded -- early-season tournament. The brackets for the debut PK80 were released Wednesday, and the opening rounds on both sides of the bracket feature some of the best matchups of the entire 2017-'18 nonconference slate. 8.…

It's my privilege to welcome you to the first installment of my Super Sweet 16; and no, University Avenue has not purchased the distribution rights to that horrible, mid-2000s MTV monument to greed and teenage delusion. Though, it is worth noting, the intro of that atrocious show featured Louisville Cardinals fan Jennifer Lawrence. This particularly…